Junior pips Yakubu by one goal

Margao: Champions East Bengal finished their eighth National Football League (NFL) engagement in style when they beat Haywards Sporting Club 2-1 at the Nehru Stadium on Wednesday.

Cristiano Junior scored both goals for East Bengal, thus emerging as the top-scorer in the tournament with 15 goals in 18 matches. The Brazilian forward pipped Churchill Brothers’ Yusif Yakubu by one goal. Abdulateef Seriki pulled one back for the home team.

East Bengal, thus, finished with 49 points, equalling their last year’s record tally. Haywards ended up being in the eighth spot with 27 points off 22 games.

With the top six teams spotted, champions East Bengal have pocketed Rs 40 lakh while second-placed Dempo, and third-placed Mahindra United have got Rs 22 lakh and Rs 16 lakh, respectively.

Churchill Brothers, JCT, and Vasco had to be content with Rs 9 lakh, Rs 5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh, respectively.

With Indian Bank of Chennai already relegated to second division, two Calcutta outfits — Mohammedan Sporting (19) and Tollygunge Agragami (20) are battling to stay in the elite league.

While Tollygunge Agragami will take on Mahindra United, Mohammedan Sporting face Dempo in their last matches, to be played on Friday.

The East Bengal-Haywards Sporting match, however, was marred by crowd violence.

Play was stopped for few minutes when the referee Rizwan-ul Haq awarded a penalty in favour of East Bengal during the first-half injury time.

A section of crowd from the southern stand tried to invade the ground in protest against the decision, given after Haywards Sporting defender Mehrajuddin brought down Bhaichung Bhutia inside the box.

Timely intervention by the police brought things under control in quick time.

Junior converted from the spot kick, beating goalkeeper Felix D’Souza with a high volley.

Junior again scored fifteen minutes after the interval when he tapped in a cross from Shylo Malsawmtluanga from the left to score his 15th goal to become the highest scorer.

Haywards Sporting upped their tempo in the second half and showed more urgency near the East Bengal box.

They eventually reduced the margin in the 84th minute through another penalty.

East Bengal goalkeeper Sandip Nandy, while trying to block a powerful shot from Francis Andrade, brought down Seriki inside the danger area.

The Nigerian himself took the kick and beat Nandy quite easily.

In their final game, East Bengal, however, seemed to get over in style the setback in their previous match when Churchill Brothers halted their ongoing unbeaten run.

They clearly dominated the proceedings in the match and came close to opening the floodgates on as many as three occasions before Junior opened his account.

Felix was the saviour for the home team on each occasion as he denied Bhutia twice and the Brazilian once with nice saves.

East Bengal, though, looked relaxed for a while following Junior’s second strike, allowing the hosts to come back in hunt for a reducer.

They eventually managed one but it never looked like East Bengal letting the match go out of their hands.

Fransa Goa triumph

Meanwhile, a spirited display by Fransa Goa saw them prevail over State Bank of Travancore 1-0 in a final-round second division NFL match in Bangalore on Wednesday.

The all important goal was scored by Van Fiel da Silva in the 10th minute of the match.

Though the Kerala side tried their best to restore parity, their repeated efforts were thwarted by a rock-solid goan defence.